As I said in the interview, If you allow yourself to be saturated in, negativity, then that attitude is going to be palpable.

It will poison your strategic thinking, it will make your strategies defensive, and your willingness to innovate and take risks to be dampened, if not suffocated.

If we see ourselves as helpless victims of this recession, then we are exponentially hobbled by the truth of the economic demise.

If, instead, we recognize that despite the economic demise we are resourceful business owners, we are smart – otherwise we wouldn’t have had what it takes to launch and sustain our businesses.

2. Learn how to manage both ends of the generational spectrum.

In the coming years, a couple of things will happen. Baby boomers will be exiting the workforce or staying in at half time. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, there will be younger workers who think they should earn 50 billion dollars a year, even though they don’t know anything and have no experience.

These will be, I believe, the two extremes, without a lot of people in the middle.

What does that mean for a manager?

It means you have to be good at managing older people, which all by itself is difficult, and at the same time, you have to be good at managing younger people, which is also difficult.

You’ll have to learn how to manage both groups of people, because no one else is going to do it for you.

3. Don’t get pigeonholed into business roles within a community.

All of us have different gifts. Some of us have money but no time; some of us have time but no money.

Some of us have financial skills, accounting skills; some of us have business planning skills; the list goes on.

Whatever you have to give, give it.

What is it that you enjoy doing? Find people in the community who need that.

If you choose to give something to the community that is something you love doing, then your enjoyment for that giving, and your passion for that topic or subject or activity will make itself apparent and create radial benefits.

So stop looking at what the needs are and start looking at what you would enjoy giving. It’s an upside-down model but I think it works better.

Here’s the entire interview, and I hope you will tell me what you think, and share your own thoughts as well.

Francie Dalton, CMC, is founder and president of Dalton Alliances, Inc. and author of the recently published book Versatility. Her Washington, DC based consultancy helps the C-Suite solve business nightmares. Francie equips clients to deal with what they didn’t see coming (and shows them there’s always another way to win!). She welcomes a chance to meet you via Twitter or on LinkedIn.